Innovate or Na Mate ?!

Would Estate agency Thrive or Die if new ways to sell and rent were brought in nationally (England).

Selling – a Vendor who is looking to sell has all checks, survey and any questions answered before marketing, so potential clients / advisors can flick through to ensure a property being viewed will be viable to purchase at the beginning at not jumping hurdles?

Rentals – Tenant is full referenced before searching, knowing their total rental amount affordable before registering and viewing. In full knowledge that hurdles are taken out of the way?

Understand this is a minefield but would greatly appreciate thoughts of those more wise.

Excuse my ignorance as I have not sold or bought a property.. So a buyer can walk in to an estate agents and the Home information Pack (HIP) would be readily available? Allowing sales to take weeks or (worst case scenario) few months, as they do in (some countries in) main land Europe?

Reason for asking the question is an industry I enjoy and love being apart of is in my opinion going in the wrong direction because there seems to be a view that this industry is a get rich quick scheme instead of a customer orientated and quality service industry.

There are endless post and articles of online agents, hybrids and upfront agents selling and renting properties. Which from what I can gather is only for a population of people that want to do it on the cheap.

We are in a world now that wants everything now and for nothing, which in any industry is not viable. So instead of looking at the “something for nothing” mentality, is it not worth looking at “everything now” mentality.

Not suggesting re-inventing the wheel here but adopting principles that are being used in other countries that could reinvigorate the industry by changing a few processes, which ultimately would benefit the high street agent/property professional from shotgun sales people.

Sadly on here we get a lot of people trying to sell to us or make people aware of what they have to offer. I would suggest in future to bit some context behind the question.

Home Information Packs (HIPs) were brought in a number of years back. They were abolished as they were expensive and often out of date by the time a purchaser had been found.

In regards to a tenant passport. The simple answer is why would a letting agent trust a tenant to put this together. Sadly a lot of tenants can be very devious and manipulate references be it previous landlords or income.

Smile Please – “why would a letting agent trust a tenant to put this together”.

Yes there would be an element of trust, though they would still go through relevant avenues i.e. FCA approved referencing agencies or tenant assessment agencies etc. Which could be shared nationwide in a central database only accessible to registered licensed agents and referencing agencies. Which would answer the problem of letting fee’s because the tenants are doing it, give more time back to agents to advise and manage the properties of Landlord clients. plus solving other issues (fraud, benefit claims, fake landlords etc.).

Clearly I need to do some reading on HIP’s as on face value I do not understand how a sales pack could go out of date.